Jill's Red Bag Part 9

"I'll tell you in a minute. I think perhaps we ought to have three heaps of stones, only it will take so long. No, one will do, and we must all three share it."

They set to work, found a corner under a tall old pine, and soon had a very respectable heap of stones collected together.

Then Jill volunteered her explanation.

"Of course, Jack, if you don't want to, you needn't, and b.u.mps needn't either, but I'm going to do it. This is going to be a kind of Jacob's pillar. I've been thinking of it a lot, and I'm going to do what Jacob did."

"Run away from home?" asked Jack, his eyes lighting up with eagerness.

"No, of course not. I'm going to give a tenth of my money to G.o.d, and I must have a proper place to do it in."

"Oh," said Jack, his face falling a little; "and you want me to do it too."

"You ought to," Jill said severely.

"I will if Jack does," said b.u.mps in her breathless way, "I have five pennies!"

"You see me do it first," said Jill; "and then you can make up your mind. It's a very solemn vow, so I must have the stones properly put."

"Yes," said Jack suddenly, "and there was the oil, you know. Jacob had some oil, it's no good without it."

"b.u.mps must go and ask cook for some; she'll always give her anything."

Away ran b.u.mps. Jack began to take a keener interest in it.

"Are you going to get very good, Jill?" he asked, looking at his sister critically.

"No," said Jill, "I'm quite sure, however much I want to be good, I shall always be very wicked. But, Jack, I've quite made up my mind to walk to the Golden City; I began the day before yesterday."

"Have you been through the river?" asked Jack in an awed whisper.

"I'm not going to talk about it," said Jill. "Miss Falkner helped me when I was in bed to start right. I'm not _quite_ sure about the road, but I think I'm on it. And anyhow I'm quite determined to give a tenth. Now here comes b.u.mps. Hooray! She's got the oil!" Jill capered with delight, then checked herself. "I'm going to be properly solemn,"

she said, "for it isn't a game at all, it's a--a--vow!"

She arranged the stones a little more carefully.

"This will have to stay just as it is for years and years and years, in fact for ever," Jill announced. "When I'm an old woman with a stick and a cap I shall be led out here by all my great-grandchildren, and I shall look back and remember this day."

"That sounds lovely," said Jack admiringly. "Do begin, here's the oil!"

Jill took the bottle, but first she marshalled Jack and b.u.mps to a respectful distance from her altar.

"You can look on, because it will be your turns next, and there must be no laughing, because I'm in awful earnest. I've brought my Bible out to say the words properly. I shall take some of the oil, and leave you the rest."

Very gravely and deliberately Jill poured the oil on the top stone, then holding her Bible in both hands for an instant, she looked up into the blue sky above her, and then in a clear, distinct voice she read--

"And this stone which I have set for a pillar shall be G.o.d's house; and of all that Thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto Thee."

There was a dead silence for a minute, then she turned to her witnesses.

"Say 'Amen,'" she commanded.

The "Amen" was fervently and loudly uttered.

Jill walked away and sat down under a tree.

"Don't speak to me," she said; "after a vow you must be quite quiet for five minutes. Now, Jack, it's your turn; you know what to do."

Jack looked a little frightened.

"It's like service in church," he confided to b.u.mps; "are you going to do it, b.u.mps?"

"Oh, yeth, I'll do it," a.s.sented b.u.mps cheerfully, "if you does."

"I suppose I'd better."

Jack walked up to the stones and took up the bottle. He poured some oil out, then followed Jill's example and read the verse out as bravely and loudly as he could.

Jill and b.u.mps uttered an emphatic "Amen," and Jack came back to his tree and sat down, heaving a great sigh of relief as he did so.

"Go on, b.u.mps," he muttered.

b.u.mps trotted up to the stones then looked helplessly round.

"I don't know what next," she said.

"Pour out some oil."

"It's a fat cork--oh! ah! it's thpilt itthelf down my pinny!"

Jill dashed up to her.

"You always spoil everything, you little stupid! Here! give the bottle to me, why, there's hardly any left! Now take it and pour it out properly, and don't keep talking so; be solemn!"

b.u.mps looked agitated.

"The Bible, Jill! Find the place quick! Oh, I shall never be ready! And Bible words is so hard to read. I'm 'fraid I shall never do it prop'ly.

And you said the verth like thaying your prayers. Hadn't I better kneel down to make it more proper to G.o.d?"

b.u.mps was earnestly trying to do her best.

Jill found the verse, and left her.

"You can kneel down if you like. It is a Bible prayer, of course, but you must do it by yourself. It's a vow to G.o.d, that's what it is."

[Ill.u.s.tration: "b.u.mPS KNELT DOWN."]

b.u.mps knelt down, holding the Bible devoutly in her little fat hands.

She read the verse haltingly, but her whole soul was in it, and she rose from her feet triumphant.